The Greek word pharmakeia appears in Galatians 5:20 and Revelation 18:23. Terms from the same root word appear in Revelation 9:21, Revelation 21:8, and Revelation 22:15. These are typically translated into English as “sorcery,” “witchcraft,” or “sorcerer.” Ancient Greek uses of pharmakeia closely mirror the generic modern English word drugs ; the same Greek root word produced English terms such as pharmacy and pharmacist.
Modern use of the word sorcery evokes images of supernatural power and spells; biblical use of pharmakeiadoesn’t fit well with such ideas. Rather, the term suggests various forms of drug abuse. Those might include drug use in pagan worship, as an addiction, or as a poison used to manipulate and control others.
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Many of my friends know that I have been suffering with hives for over a year. When they first started, it was agonizing. I would wake up several times in the night, realizing that I had scratched myself to the the point of drawing blood. I was miserable.
I began to realize that there was a pattern to my hives. My children and grandchildren were jabbed and boosted, and if I was around them right after they received the jabs, I would break out in the hives.
The itching was so horrible. I finally called my GP’s office and spoke to one of the nurses about the hives. My doctor called me in an antihistamine called HydroxyZine. On the bottle the dosage said 1 to 2 pills every 4 – 6 hours. These were 25 mg pills.
I trusted that my doctor was prescribing these pills in a safe manner. I soon found out that he was not. After about 3 days on HydroxyZine, the most frightening and horrific things were happening to me in the night.
The first night I awoke about 3 am and saw faces which looked like demons at the foot of my bed. I clung to my husband and said to him “Don’t let them get me!” Of course, Tim didn’t see the faces, but seeing me in such a state, he commanded them to leave in the name of Jesus – and they were gone.
The next morning I sent a message to my doctor and asked if there are known complications with HydroxyZine. He wrote back almost immediately and said that this antihistamine could cause hallucinations in older people. I am 71 years old and my doctor has been seeing me for over 13 years. He knew my age and yet prescribed these devil drugs to me anyway.
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Then my GP wanted me to see an immunologist/ dermatologist and I did. I have numerous autoimmune issues, and when the doctor heard this she said “Well your hives are Autoimmune hives and we really do not know how to cure them.” She proceeded to tell me to take 4 Zyrtec a day for itching. I told her that the bottle says to only take one. She said “I’m saying take 4 because of the extent of your hives.”
I’m glad now that I didn’t listen to her advice, and you will see why towards the end of this piece.
I called my Neurologist who sees me for seizures and scheduled a video appointment with her. I made a list of OTC meds and I asked her one by one if each was safe for me to take. She told me to NEVER take any “PM” pills for sleeping. I told her about the experience with the HydroxyZine and she was shocked that my GP would even have prescribed those for me!
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My neurologist told me that the only medication she wanted me on was my Clonazepam (Klonapin) because I have been on that for over 30 years for my seizures. She did not even want me to take Zyrtec. Remember the immunologist wanted me to take 4 a day? The neurologist said that Zyrtec is not recommended for elderly people!
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I know that many of my readers are older people. I wondered how many of my friends were taking drugs which were not good for them and could even cause hallucinations or worse – death!
Don’t ever forget what Pharmakeia means in the Bible! I had to learn this the hard way.
I even wondered if certain drugs can open up a demonic realm, and perhaps when I saw what appeared to be demons – may have been demons! Years ago, a sister in the Lord said to me that she read that if we could “see” the demonic activity around us, we’d most likely have heart attacks!
— Geri Ungurean, Absolute Truth from the Word of God: JESUS HAS EVERY ANSWER, PHARMAKEIA in the Bible= WITCHCRAFT AND SORCERY: and a Firsthand Story About These DEVILISH DRUGS, June 7, 2022
Bruce Gerencser, 66, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 45 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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Normally I’d have sympathy for someone with seizures and hives. (checks give-a-damn-o-meter) Nope, not a twitch.
On Clonazepam for the last 30 years? Well that explains it, she’s a drug addict.
Good grief. I went through a 5 year phase where I got rashes and hives all the time. No one ever found the root cause, but in the end, relaxing drugs helped. And they’ve been gone for over 20 years. I clicked on this woman’s link, and the comments are pretty nutty too. No point in trying to speak rationally to the irrational.
That’s quite common in Allergy medicine – very often they run a bunch of tests that all come back negative, and use the catch-all phrase “idiopathic” in the diagnosis. IOW, “Yes, it’s a real rash but we haven’t a flippin’ clue what’s causing it.”
Ah, hell, let’s just let them all think modern medicine is of the devil and natural selection will eventually thin the heard.
Dang spellcheck…*herd.
Geri needs help she cannot receive because she is unable to control her delusions-religio…. Hives are her own body demanding that she attend to her issues. She cannot because she has given herself over to sweet ‘American Jesus’. The devil is jumping her at every juncture….poor biped. Science is of no use when abused.
Geri, The cliche is ‘you are your own worst enemy’, and you need to listen to your body telling you that!
This Geri person is keeping herself in a state over everything, and has been taking a drug for decades that could be contributing to her problems. She would be better off trying different meds especially after 30 years. And at the same time, she condemns doctors and pharmacies for sorcery? sigh
She is probably having a stress reaction manifesting itself through hives.
Some religious people who take scary demons and beings so seriously live in so much fear – it’s no wonder they break out in hives or have anxiety attacks and so forth. Sad.
OC, I think I mentioned something similar. I had a compassionate allergist tell me 30 years ago that doctors didn’t really understand exactly why people get hives. He tried different things and eventually, my 5 yr bout stopped. For a time I gave up soaps and detergents that had any dye or fragrances. In the end, I got less stressed…and I just this second realized that about the time my hives went away, I was mostly done with my denomination. Coincidence? Hmmmmmm.
Geri: “I even wondered if certain drugs can open up a demonic realm, and perhaps when I saw what appeared to be demons – may have been demons! Years ago, a sister in the Lord said to me that she read that if we could “see” the demonic activity around us, we’d most likely have heart attacks!”
Zoe: I wonder what makes the “sister in the Lord” an authority on “demonic activity?”
I personally lived with an enormous amount of fear about health conditions during my Christian years. There is no peace with constant fear of demons. It leaves one in a constant state of fight or flight, or maybe they freeze, like a rabbit trying to avoid a fox. It can lead to a constant state of trauma, to the point of completely leaving your brain and body at the door, and following others blindly.
I use to describe all of this like being in a pinball machine. Pinging off the bumpers ad nauseum with this spiritual thought and that spiritual thought. Here a demon, there a demon, every where a demon, demon. Oh Zoe, you must being doing great work for the Lord that he has allowed Satan to attack your back. Oh Zoe, you have pneumonia because Satan is trying to take you down. Oh Zoe, you don’t have Crohn’s disease, you have secret unconfessed sin in your heart. Confess it and you won’t have “so called” Crohn’s disease any more.
And for awhile, due to extreme traumatic stress and vulnerability I believed them! Seriously.
You know who breaks me out in a rash? People like Geri who didn’t get vaccinated because they think they are on a higher plain of existence. That they somehow possess secret knowledge and go around turning their personal demonic stories into literalism. They actually create their own religion . . . which come to think of it, I don’t think they’re suppose to do. Oh she might come back with, I can’t have the vaccine, I have a medical exemption. She may very well have one . . . the thing is, she’s telling everyone who sits at her feet, “beware” . . . and I don’t know Geri, but I think you could just leave it at “hallucinations” and leave the demons to themselves. Quit scaring the shit out of people with stuff you literally know nothing about. You’re probably adding to their heart failure as it is.
all geri appears to be doing is trying to get attention as usual. She often does this, making ridiculous claims.
My reaction is a little different than the other commenters. I found this post thoroughly hilarious. Not her medical conditions, obviously. But attributing her problems to demons and “Pharmakeia ” made for very entertaining reading.
True story: Years ago, I had oral surgery to remove an impacted wisdom tooth. Because the pain would be excruciating, the doctor prescribed 2 drugs. One was for pain (daytime) and a sleeping pill (bedtime, a knock out drug). While I was recovering, all I could do was watch TV. One afternoon, the characters on the TV appeared to jump out and dance on the floor in front of me. When I went to bed, I had a night terror of a maniac Spongebob Squarepants chasing me with a bloody butcher knife. It scared the crap out of me! Of course, I called my local priest to exorcise the evil Spongebob demons from my home! : )
Seriously, I called my doctor, who explained that hallucinations were a common side affect of this drug. Most people had happy trips, but because of my recurring night terrors, he told me to toss the pills and take the sleeping pills if the pain was bad. Not a problem, since I was on complete bed rest, forbidden to work or do anything else. Later, I told a therapist this story, and she said because of my past (child abuse survivor) the drug might have released something from my subconcious. She advised me to be aware of this and in the future, ask if painkillers cause hallucinations, so at least I might be better prepared to deal with weird dreams.
Unlike the Christian superstitious paranoid, I am aware of how my mental health issues affect my health and my reactions to drugs. I was told it was Satan or demons, anything to avoid reality. I break out in hives when under severe emotional stress. I cannot do much about them. They go away when the problem is solved, or when I calm down and learn to deal with or accept the situation.
I believe the lady in the article is trapped in her crazy world of superstition and mental health issues. I was for a long time, not as bad as she is, but it’s scary when you lose control and foolishly turn to idiots who make it worse. Given her age, I don’t believe there is any hope for her. I was lucky in that I found people who didn’t enable my problems. I was also lucky that I always had a love of science, and in re-reading my favorite books, I came back to reality. But, some will fall down the rabbit hole of insanity, and there is nothing we can do to stop it.